Ubuntu causing lots and lots of problems

turgon

I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a partition on my hard drive. Trying a Linux Distro for curiosities sake, and apparently Ubuntu is the easiest for Noobs like myself

So anyway I was messing around with system config when it froze. So I manually shut down the computer and restarted.

When started again I loaded a few things and closed them down. Looking at the blank desktop. Then by a mistake I turned the mouse wheel, which causes Ubuntu to go into the second workspace. Froze again.

Restarted. This time I messed around with some screen resolutions. The second one I tried returned a black screen. Restarted Ubuntu, logged in only to find the black screen again. I can safety assume that I cant access Ubuntu now and will just have to erase it or something.

Is it just my computer isnt up to scratch? Ive it installed on a small partition, could this be the issue? You see I've been running XP for three years now and havent come anywhere remotely near to these random freezings.

corkie

How much space did you allocate for ubuntu?

What hardware has your computer (graphics/ram/processor)?

Did you install through wubi or allocate space with partitioning?

As you haven't done much with your system, the quickest method to solve your problems would be to reinstall.

Regards,
J.

P.S. You broke my silence --- I wonder did anyone place a bet for today?

bushy...

turgon wrote: »

I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a partition on my hard drive. Trying a Linux Distro for curiosities sake, and apparently Ubuntu is the easiest for Noobs like myself

As you'll read in this thread : http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055568371&page=2
and on the their own forums they are trying to "market" it as the easiest for noobs as you say , and the best ever replacement for windows.

Unfortunately they seem to be trying to do it all too fast for "their" abilities and basic stuff is getting wobbly - just like you've experienced.

Few to try for the craic , its just a cd if they don't work and shouldn't be hard to install

http://www.pcbsd.org

Debian http://www.debian.org/CD would be much the same since Ubuntu is based on it . Will be much the same to install.

stereo_steve

bushy... wrote: »

As you'll read in this thread : http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055568371&page=2
Unfortunately they seem to be trying to do it all too fast for "their" abilities and basic stuff is getting wobbly - just like you've experienced.

Few to try for the craic , its just a cd if they don't work and shouldn't be hard to install

http://www.pcbsd.org

Debian http://www.debian.org/CD would be much the same since Ubuntu is based on it . Will be much the same to install.

Could not disagree anymore with that post!

@turgon - post up answers to the post corkie wrote and we will help you out.

Can I ask why you aren't testing out the latest ubuntu 9.04?

/Steve

bushy...

I wasn't insinuating that imo existing users of Ubuntu had made a daft choice.

Just that they push it as the best thing ever and the ONLY choice for new people.

Its far from the best thing and there are many other choices.

velocirafter

It sounds like you might have messed up your xorg settings (thats the bit that controls the graphics) if you can get to a command line try running this command, it will reconfigure your xorg


sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg


to get to a command line, once you think it has booted fully press:

ctrl + alt + F1

Tillotson

Does this mean that you were manually editing the xorg.conf file?

If it's a problem with xorg you can find what's wrong by:
ctrl alt f1
tail var/log/Xorg.0.log

If what velocirafter says fails just rename the xorg.conf file, newer versions of xorg don't strictly need an xorg.conf.

ctrl alt f1
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
reboot
undo this if fail:
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If success, then go system > administration > hardware drivers > nvidia/ati and get this tool to write a new xorg.conf for you.

Another option if using nvidia driver is
sudo nvidia-xconfig
or
sudo nvidia-xconfig --composte --add-argb-glx-visuals

Linux is easy to break...
Stay away from Debian. It assumes you know linux.

bushy...

Tillotson wrote: »

Does this mean that you were manually editing the xorg.conf file?

If it's a problem with xorg you can find what's wrong by:
ctrl alt f1
tail var/log/Xorg.0.log

If what velocirafter says fails just rename the xorg.conf file, newer versions of xorg don't strictly need an xorg.conf.

ctrl alt f1
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
reboot
undo this if fail:
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If success, then go system > administration > hardware drivers > nvidia/ati and get this tool to write a new xorg.conf for you.

Another option if using nvidia driver is
sudo nvidia-xconfig
or
sudo nvidia-xconfig --composte --add-argb-glx-visuals

Linux is easy to break...
Stay away from Debian. It assumes you know linux.

.

Tillotson

Highlighting - an excellent way to make your point.

You sure emphasised the hypocrisy of my post. Now if you have an easier solution, or you want to clarify my post go ahead. Thanks.

The fact of the matter is that this is going to have to be solved at a terminal.

Recommending Debian or pcBSD to a beginner is the wrong way to go imho.

<on topic>
All these commands can be copy pasted.

To reboot:
sudo shutdown -r now

Good luck, I hope your up and running soon.
Tip for the future: Always copy config files before editing

bushy...

turgon wrote: »

I just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a partition on my hard drive. Trying a Linux Distro for curiosities sake, and apparently Ubuntu is the easiest for Noobs like myself

So anyway I was messing around with system config when it froze. So I manually shut down the computer and restarted.

When started again I loaded a few things and closed them down. Looking at the blank desktop. Then by a mistake I turned the mouse wheel, which causes Ubuntu to go into the second workspace. Froze again.

Restarted. This time I messed around with some screen resolutions. The second one I tried returned a black screen. Restarted Ubuntu, logged in only to find the black screen again. I can safety assume that I cant access Ubuntu now and will just have to erase it or something.

Whatever about the random freezing , for now you need to fix up the file you edited.

What is happening now is it is reading the file you edited , loading the "wrong" settings and just can't display anything.

All is not lost at all.

You can start your pc in "text mode" so you can fix up the file you edited earlier. (it'll be kinda like the command prompt in XP )

You might see a "Recovery mode " just as it starts up

corkie

If can get into a text mode the easy solution would have been to use :

X --configure

(may not work anymore as conf file is not used anymore in ubuntu?)

But as the OP has already thanked me, I think he fixed his problem.
More help available from the "Ubuntu Links".

OT: Now if i could only get W7RC to work on my desktop with out BSOD, something to do with NVIDIA.

Got it to work eventually by attaching an ordinary monitor to VGA port, instead of dvi. then installed the updated drivers.

Karmic Koala Alpha 1 server 64 works okay. So why not windows 7.

Regards,
John O Connell.

turgon

Thanks for all the help guys. My computer has 1gb ram. Ive assigned a partition of circa 18 GB. You see I had both installed Wubi and ran off CD but performance wasnt up to scratch so I went for full install.

Since the thread start ive re-installed Ubuntu. Im using 8.10 as I have really slow Internet and it would have taken ages to download 9.04 (I think). I has frozen once since install, but Ive had a three hour session and this current 1.5 hour session on it without it freezing. To prevent freezing Ive turned off "special effects."

So Ive avoided the multi desktop thing and screen resolution. Btw when I was editing system setting it was solely through the gui -> I wasnt editing files. But now that ye have thrown up some commands, I might print out said commands and try to edit the resolution.

Ive no problem going into the terminal (I actually find it cool in the nerdy way), and I used it yesterday to install Apache, PHP and MySql. Ive also used it to change chmods and chowns and stuff so I can edit GRUB.

turgon

As for my experience so far, to comment on the issue of noobyness. (Ive kept this separate to the above post in case of tl;dr.)

I found the install a very slight pain. This was because I had to put Ubuntu on the same drive as Windows. I was planning on putting it on the second haUd drive but my bootloader doesnt sense my second hard drive. I originally used the Ubuntu partitioner to set up 18GB partition but this froze half way though. I didnt have enough space on the main partition to carve out another 18GB, and ubuntu wouldnt automatically select the 18 GB free space. Thus I had to select manual on the partition manager.

Now the only reason I could get through this stage was because I had noted down partitions on the first install so I knew I needed two (Linux swap and the other one). Also it asked me to select root partition. The only reason I could do this one is because of some limited experience with web design, I knew what was meant by root. So in summary I couldnt see any total computer noob like any of my parents installing if they had to select manual partitions.

Apart from the freezing Im happy with Ubuntu. The add/remove thing is just so great. Its really handy the way one "sudo apt-get install apache2" did what may have took a lot longer in Windows. I dont do a whole lot on my OS, mainly Internet browsing, PHP development, Image editing (I used Inkscape on Windows so no change here) and music manager. Due to the free compilers Ive heard I might delve into some other language, like some kind of C.

So if I get no problems in the future I imagine I will use Ubuntu as my primary OS. I still have to keep Windows for the others though.

bushy...

turgon wrote: »

Ive no problem going into the terminal (I actually find it cool in the nerdy way), and I used it yesterday to install Apache, PHP and MySql. Ive also used it to change chmods and chowns and stuff so I can edit GRUB.

If your happy out using the terminal , tis the way to go imo .

bushy...

turgon wrote: »

The add/remove thing is just so great. Its really handy the way one "sudo apt-get install apache2" did what may have took a lot longer in Windows.

Most of them ( the non-windows OS's ) have something like that though ,

Debian ( Ubuntu is based on it) has " apt-get whatever_you_want"

BSD has " pkg_add whatever_you_want"

corkie

turgon wrote: »

Since the thread start ive re-installed Ubuntu. Im using 8.10 as I have really slow Internet and it would have taken ages to download 9.04 (I think).

I recently saw a new magazine in the shops "Ubuntu Format" It had a double side DVD of the latest Ubuntu 9.04 with both 32bit and 64 bit on it.

Handy for anyone with slow internet.

Regards,
John.

turgon

Ive ordered the free CD of Ubuntu 9.04 off of the website. When it comes I might just to a blanket re-install, I doubt I will have done that much in 5 weeks.

I know I probably will be scorned for this comment, but one of the reasons Ive latched onto Ubuntu is because the Gnome GUI is a breath of fresh air from that of Windows XP.

Ive always hated the Vista GUI.

An Fear Aniar

corkie wrote: »

I recently saw a new magazine in the shops "Ubuntu Format" It had a double side DVD of the latest Ubuntu 9.04 with both 32bit and 64 bit on it.

There's a real magazine called Linux Format which is really good, but this article about Ubuntu Format appears to be a joke (see the date). People are always slagging off Linux Format for covering too much Ubuntu and neglecting other distros.

.

bushy...

http://tuxradar.com/content/ubuntu-rewrite-linux-kernel-using-mono

corkie

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

There's a real magazine called Linux Format which is really good, but this article about Ubuntu Format appears to be a joke (see the date). People are always slagging off Linux Format for covering too much Ubuntu and neglecting other distros.

.

But i did see a "Ubuntu ___________ " in eason's recently? Just can not remember the name.

bushy...

turgon wrote: »

I know I probably will be scorned for this comment, but one of the reasons Ive latched onto Ubuntu is because the Gnome GUI is a breath of fresh air from that of Windows XP.

Ive always hated the Vista GUI.

I couldn't put up with the Vista GUI , it makes it too slow and painful to do anything.
Not sure if you know , you can rip out the Gnome GUI and replace it with another one if you like. Thats one of the sweeter things about Linuxy stuff

turgon

Yeah I know, do many people use KDE instead?

Just looking at the Wikipedia screen shot - it looks a bit cluttered for my liking. I like the two bars (top and bottom) in GNOME so you can separate things out.

Although you can probably do that too in KDE?

Johnboy1951

turgon wrote: »

Yeah I know, do many people use KDE instead?

Just looking at the Wikipedia screen shot - it looks a bit cluttered for my liking. I like the two bars (top and bottom) in GNOME so you can separate things out.

Although you can probably do that too in KDE?

Yes fully customisable ..... and IMO easier to customise than Gnome. But that is just a personal view.

turgon

Cool. Ive set up xfce so ill do kde after Im finished updating to 9.04.

Just one question. On my desktop I've 3 "launchers" which launch to different folders (Linux server location, XAMPP server and my Windows documents). However I have to click on Places>120 GB Media and Places>133GB Media before these hard drives will be registered as "disk" and "disk-1" respectively; and the launchers start working. Is there anyway to register disk and disk-1 automatically on startup?

corkie

turgon wrote: »

... registered as "disk" and "disk-1" respectively; and the launchers start working. Is there anyway to register disk and disk-1 automatically on startup?

You will need to edit your "fstab" file more info here

Regards,
J.

Johnboy1951

turgon wrote: »

Cool. Ive set up xfce so ill do kde after Im finished updating to 9.04.

Just one question. On my desktop I've 3 "launchers" which launch to different folders (Linux server location, XAMPP server and my Windows documents). However I have to click on Places>120 GB Media and Places>133GB Media before these hard drives will be registered as "disk" and "disk-1" respectively; and the launchers start working. Is there anyway to register disk and disk-1 automatically on startup?

I can only speak to KDE ---- where you can set up the partitions to automount when plugged in rather than having to click on them which mounts them for use.
There are also other options in the right click properties which allow setting where they mount to ..... I give the partitions a "label" or name and they mount to that.

I no longer use fstab for any media that is removeable ... USB or others.

turgon

Worked perfectly, thanks a million.

My music loads right as well.

Having no more problems so far (tough wood!). Upgraded to 9.04 as well. I like the update system, not as pushy as Microsofts. In fact Ive been nothing but impressed.

corkie

corkie wrote: »

But i did see a "ubuntu-user" in eason's recently?

Issue 1: Handy for a complete novice. With guides to get around the OS and packages

12 euro is expensive enough but for people on dialup only or very slow connection and don't want use up there Download limits. See above post
Regards,
John O Connell

turgon

corkie wrote: »

Issue 1: Handy for a complete novice. With guides to get around the OS and packages

€12 seemed a bit expensive for information that can be found free on google search

corkie

Linux New Media Launches Ubuntu User Magazine May 28 2009 Lawrence KS USA May 28 2009 Linux New Media USA LLC announces the launch of a new print publication Ubuntu User magazine.

Read more here

Funny that it has been on our store shelves for the last two weeks?

vibe666

i've been using mint for the last year or so (since v5 came out) and decided to give ubuntu 9.04 a go and quickly remembered why i moved to mint in the first place. lickily for me, this was only on wednesday and lo and behold mint v7 had just come out so i flattened ubuntu and moved back over to mint and what a joy it was to have it back. i just can't get on with ubuntu at all. they keep saying it's the best Linux OS for n00bs but it doesn't even remotely compare to mint.

i know mint has ubuntu at it's core, but it's so much more user friendly and very easy for ex-windows users to get on with by comparison to ubuntu and everything that you have to spend hours configuring in ubuntu us already there in mint and working perfectly.

i actually don't think i've touched the terminal in the last 3 days since i installed it aside from configuring samba and that was only a couple of minor edits to the default settings to get it configured for my network.

1 thumb up for ubuntu 9.04, but two thumbs up for mint v7 from me!